Video communication systems are used for facilitating interaction and collaboration. While computer-based systems (desktop videoconferencing) are gaining wide acceptance, so-called “room” systems are used as well. Room systems can be installed in traditional conference rooms, and feature one or more displays, a high-quality camera, often with pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) capability, and a central operating unit. User interaction can be accomplished with a remote control unit. In early implementations, room systems were the typical solution for having a videoconference, using custom-made hardware that was included in the central operating unit. Today, users can connect to a conferencing session from a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet such as Apple's iPad, or a smartphone such as Apple's iPhone, since the functions of the central operating unit can today be performed using software that runs on the hardware systems.
One of the differences between the computer-based and tablet/smartphone-based solutions and the room-based system is that the latter typically is not equipped with a keyboard but a remote control. Contrary to other devices (e.g., a television), however, a videoconferencing unit may require significant user input in order to connect to a conference, or control an ongoing conference. Such remote controls typically feature a numeric keypad (0 through 9), navigation buttons (up-down, left-right), as well as a small number of special-purpose buttons. Entering textual data typically requires pressing each of the numeric keys several times, in order to reach the desired (alphabetic) character. This may be cumbersome, and has been an obstacle in making room systems easy to use.
This problem is not found exclusively in room-based videoconferencing systems, but can be present whenever alphabetic data entry is required through a numeric-only control device. One such example may be a set-top box, or a home media server device (e.g., Apple TV or Roku), among others.
There exists a need to simplify the process of entering textual data using a remote control.